Privacy policy

Summary

• There are no accounts. We never collect your name, email address, phone number or location.
• Your progress and settings are saved on your device. If you are signed in to Game Center (Apple) or Google Play Games, a copy of your progress is also saved there (cloud save) and the game reports achievements. Apple or Google hold these in your own account; we never receive them (see Cloud save and achievements).
• The game makes a random player ID. When you win a level, the game sends that ID, the level and your moves to our tree server so it can check the win and fund your real trees. The server also sees your device's IP address.
• Ads are provided by Google AdMob. Google collects device and advertising identifiers, your IP address and ad interaction data. Where the law requires it, Google's consent form asks adults first; players under 18, or who didn't give an age, only ever get ads that are not personalised. In the UK, the EEA and Switzerland no ad is shown to a child (or anyone who didn't give an age) unless a parent agrees in the game, and teenagers who are old enough to decide for themselves are asked in Google's consent form (see Ads for younger players in the UK, EEA and Switzerland). No other ad network is used in this version of the game (see Other ad networks).
• Purchases go through Apple or Google. We never see your card or payment details. For the optional Tidy Pass subscription (adults only), our server checks with Apple or Google when it expires and whether it renews, and keeps only hashed purchase identifiers with that status.
• Reminder notifications are scheduled on your device, only if you say yes. There is no push notification service.
• There are no third-party analytics or crash reporting tools in the game, and this website sets no cookies. The game can send us anonymous play stats (how levels and the shop are used, never who you are) so we can make the game better. For adults in the UK it is on after a clear notice, with a one-tap switch to turn it off; for adults elsewhere it is off unless they say yes; for anyone under 18, or who didn't give an age, it is off and they are never asked (see Anonymous play stats).
• Our tree planting partner receives no information about you.
• You can see your player ID and delete your data in the game's Settings, or ask us by email. Our server deletes the levels and dates of players who stop playing after 730 days (see How long we keep data for the rest), and its logs never hold your full player ID or IP address.

Who we are

Tidy Wilds (the game and this website) is made and published by Steven Shackleton, an individual developer and publisher based in the United Kingdom (not a limited company). In this policy "we", "us" and "our" mean Steven Shackleton. We are the controller of the personal data described here, except where we say that another company (such as Google or Apple) is responsible for its own processing.

• Email: support@tidywilds.com (please put "Privacy request" in the subject line)
• Postal address: Tidy Wilds, Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA
• ICO registration: ZC287950

We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer: the law only requires one where an organisation's core activities involve large-scale monitoring of people or large-scale use of sensitive data, which ours do not. Please contact us directly about anything in this policy.

Information stored on your device

The game saves the following on your phone or tablet, using the operating system's app storage. It stays on your device unless your device's own backup copies it (see below).

Deleting it: uninstalling the game removes this data from your device. "Reset progress" in Settings clears your progress but, as the game tells you, keeps your trees and your player ID. "Delete my data" in Settings clears your progress, your unsent level proofs and your player ID, and gives the game a new player ID; it also asks our server to delete your data (see Deleting your data). It keeps the items you bought and the real trees already ordered in your forest on the device.

Android backup: on Android, the operating system's automatic backup is on, so your saved game (progress, purchases and your player ID) may be included in your device backup to your Google account, which lets you keep your game on a new phone. Your age group is never included: it is kept in a separate file that is left out of backups and phone-to-phone transfers, so a game restored onto another phone asks the age question again. That backup is handled by Google under your Google account settings; we cannot see it.

Your player ID

The first time you open the game, it creates a random 32-character ID (made from 16 random bytes). It is not based on your device, your advertising ID, your name or anything else about you. It is how our tree server knows which verified wins and trees belong together.

On its own the player ID does not tell us who you are. We still treat it, and the data linked to it, as personal data, because together with your IP address it could relate to you.

Finding it: open Settings in the game and look under Your data > Your player ID. It is shown shortened (the first 8 and last 4 characters). Tap the copy button to copy the full ID, then paste it into an email to us. Because there are no accounts, the full player ID is the only way we can find your data on our server. Please send it only to us: anyone who has it can see that ID's tree list or delete its data.

Our tree server

The real-tree feature needs a small server that we run. Test builds of the game do not contact it at all. In release builds, the game talks to it as follows:

The game sends no device model, advertising ID, language, time zone or app version to our server. Like any internet server, it does see the IP address your connection comes from.

What the server stores

• Verified levels: for each player ID, each level beaten with its seed, score and the time. Your moves are replayed to check the win and are not kept afterwards.
• Last seen: the date (day only, no time) the server last heard from your player ID, so that data from players who have stopped playing can be deleted on time (see How long the server keeps data).
• Tree orders: player ID, milestone, species, dates, order status, a random order key, the tree's public tree code (see below), the partner, the partner's order reference, the partner's own record of the tree exactly as it answered, the price paid, and any project, location, tree page, certificate and "in the ground" details the partner reports. Every week we compare the species and project with the partner's public records; this sends the partner only its own project and species numbers, never anything about you.
• Checked purchases (when purchase checks are on): a one-way hash (SHA-256) of the store transaction ID or purchase token and of your player ID, with the product, the store, whether it was a test purchase, and the time. This stops one purchase being redeemed by two players. The signed record and token themselves are not kept. To check a purchase our server may ask Apple (App Store Server API) or Google (Google Play Developer API) about that transaction. For a Tidy Pass subscription the record also holds the date it is paid up to and its latest status (active, in a billing grace period, cancelled but still paid up, on hold, paused or expired); see Tidy Pass subscription.
• Revenue totals: monthly totals only, with no information about individual players (see Store and ad revenue reports).

Server logs

For security and to keep the service running, the server writes a log line for every request: the request method, the address requested, the result and how long it took. Logs never contain your full player ID or your full IP address:

• player IDs are cut to their first 8 characters, including where the ID is part of the address requested;
• IP addresses are shortened to the network they belong to (the last part is removed: for example 203.0.113.77 is logged as 203.0.113.0/24, and an IPv6 address keeps only its first 48 bits). This lets us spot abuse from a network without identifying a household or device.

To stop abuse, the server counts requests per full IP address in memory only. That count is never written to disk and is forgotten when the server restarts or the address has been quiet for a while.

Anyone who knows a player ID can ask the server for that ID's tree list, or ask for its data to be deleted. The list contains tree orders and counts only, no personal details, and player IDs are long random values that are practically impossible to guess.

Tree codes and the public check page

Each real tree has a short tree code, like TW-7F3K2. It is made at random: it is not based on your player ID or anything else about you. We print it on the tree's certificate in the game, and send it to our planting partner with the order (in the message shown on the partner's own page for that tree), so anyone can match the two up.

Anyone who has a tree code can look it up at tidywilds.com/tree (that is where the certificate's QR code goes). The page shows only facts about the tree: what earned it (a world, a weekly tournament, the Seed Garden or a Golden Seed), its dates, its species and planting project, the project's general area (never the exact spot), the partner's name and its record number, and the project's own photos and news. It never shows who earned the tree: no player ID, no name and nothing else about a player. If you share your certificate, people can look up the tree, but not you. Our server limits how often one connection can look up codes, so codes can't be listed by guessing.

Our planting partner never receives anything about you: no names, email addresses or player IDs. Only the tree code and what earned the tree (for example "Earned in Tidy Wilds: Whispering Woods") go with the order.

How long the server keeps data

• Verified levels and the last-seen date are deleted automatically once your player ID has not been used with our server for 730 days. Any use counts: winning a level, earning a tree or opening My Trees.
• When that happens, your tree orders are kept but your player ID is removed from them and replaced with a random code that cannot be linked back to you. A tree you earned that is still waiting for budget stays in the queue and is still ordered.
• Tree order records (milestone, species, partner, the partner's order reference, project and certificate details, dates) are records of money we spent on trees, so we keep them for our accounts for 6 full UK tax years after the end of the tax year (6 April to 5 April) in which the tree was ordered, and then delete them. HMRC asks sole traders to keep business records for at least 5 years after the 31 January tax return deadline, and this period covers that. These records are kept separately from your verified levels: deleting your levels never deletes the record of a tree bought, and once your player ID has been removed, the record no longer points to you.
• Server logs are kept on our server, which Fly.io hosts for us in the United Kingdom (London), for no more than 30 days, and then deleted.
• Backups of the server's data are kept for no more than 30 days, so data deleted from the server is gone from backups within that time.
• Checked purchases (one-way hashes only) are kept as explained in How long we keep data.

The server applies the limits for verified levels, last-seen dates and tree orders every day.

The weekly tournament (Litter Picker of the Week)

Not running yet: the weekly tournament may be offered in future. Until we switch it on in the game, nothing on this page about it happens and nothing is sent for it. Once it runs: adults (players who said they are 18 or over) take part in a free weekly competition, for small in-game prizes once those are offered. To decide it fairly, the game sends each campaign level you win to our tree server, which replays it (as for first wins) and counts the litter you cleared. For each week the server keeps your player ID, your litter total, how many wins were counted, when your total last went up, and the level and seed of each counted game, then the results (your place and prize tier) and whether you collected your prize. If you win the week, we order one extra real tree under your player ID, like a world tree, and show it in My Trees. Nothing else about you is used: no name, email, nickname or location. Players under 18, or who didn't give an age, are never entered and the game sends nothing extra for them. The rules are in our terms. We keep these records for 8 weeks; "Delete my data" removes them at once.

Anonymous play stats

To see where players stop, which levels are too hard or too easy, how many come back after a day, a week and a month, whether acorns are too scarce or too easy to get, and which errors players meet so we can fix bugs, the game can send us anonymous play stats. We use them only to improve the game. We have no analytics company and use no analytics or tracking tool from anyone else: the stats go only to our own tree server, and we never sell them or share them for advertising.

• What is sent: for each level played: the level number, which try it is on this device, whether it was won, lost or left, the moves or seconds left, the stars, the score as a band (for example "5,000 to 10,000"), roughly how much was left to do (as a band), and how many power-ups, start bonuses and extra-move continues were used. The furthest level reached. Once a day, how many days ago the game was first opened, as a band (0, 1, 2 to 6, 7 to 13, 14 to 29, or 30 or more). For each session: how many acorns were earned and from where (for example "level wins" or "daily gift"), how many were spent and on what (for example "power-ups"), and how often the shop was opened. Purchases, as the shop item's name only (no price, receipt or order number). With each batch: the game's version, iPhone/iPad or Android, phone or tablet, and the country of your device's language setting (for example "GB" from "English (UK)"). Never your location.
• Anonymous error reports (part of the play stats, to fix bugs): if something goes wrong in the game, the type of error (for example "RangeError"), a short code made from where in the game's own code it happened, and the name of the game screen it happened on. Never the error's message, and nothing about you. At most 20 in a session, and each kind of error only once.
• The stats number: each batch carries a random stats number made on your device. It is not your player ID (which is used for trees, purchases and invites), it is not an advertising ID, and our server has nothing that links the two. Your device makes a new one every 90 days, whenever you switch the stats off and on again, if your age setting changes, and on "Delete my data".
• What is never sent: your name, email address, player ID, device or advertising ID (IDFA/GAID), contacts, location, anything you type, your age group, or the time of day.
• What we keep: the batches as they arrived, filed by the day they arrived, for at most 90 days, and for each stats number the furthest level reached and which return days (1, 7 and 30) were seen, also only until 90 days after it was last seen. After that we keep only totals (for example "level 12, March: 140 starts, 61 wins") for up to 24 months. The batches are not included in server backups. Our server does not store or log your IP address for these requests: it is only used briefly, in memory, to stop the server being flooded.
• Who has it switched on:
  • Adults (18 or over) in the UK (when the device's language setting says the UK and no other European country): it is on by default. Before anything is recorded, a notice ("Anonymous play stats") explains it, with two equal buttons: "OK" and "Turn off". You can switch it off at any time, in one tap, in Settings > Share anonymous play stats.
  • Adults everywhere else (including the EEA and Switzerland): it is off until you say yes. You are asked once, after you have won three levels, with a small card ("Help improve Tidy Wilds?") and two equal buttons, "Share stats" and "No thanks". If you close the card, it stays off. You can change your answer at any time in Settings.
  • Players under 18, and anyone who chose "Prefer not to say": it is off and the game never asks. It can be switched on in Settings, but for a player under 16, or who didn't give an age, a grown-up must answer the parent check first.
  If the age setting changes, the switch goes back to the default for the new age.
• On your device: stats wait on the device until they are sent, in small batches. Anything not sent within 7 days is thrown away. Switching the setting off, or "Delete my data", throws away anything not yet sent and the stats number. Test and pre-release versions of the game never send stats.
• Deleting them: stats already sent are filed under a random stats number that only your device knew. Once it is gone from your device ("Delete my data", or switching the stats off), nothing links those stats to you, so we cannot find them to delete them early; they are deleted within 90 days as above.

Invite a friend and sharing your tree

Sharing your tree (everyone). When one of your real trees has been earned, ordered or planted, its card has a Share your tree button. It makes a picture of the tree (its species, the world you earned it in, the planting wording, our logo and tidywilds.com) and opens your device's own share menu. The picture holds no name, player ID, tree reference, date or anything else about you, nothing is sent to us, and there is no reward for sharing. For players under 16, or who didn't give an age, a grown-up must answer the parent check before the share menu opens.

Invite a friend (adults only). Players who said they are 18 or over can get a personal invite code to share with friends, and enter a friend's code when they are new to the game. When the friend has beaten 10 levels (checked by our server from the same level proofs that earn trees), both players get a small reward in the game. Players under 18, and anyone who chose "Prefer not to say", never see invite codes, links or rewards, and an invite link opened on their game is ignored. The feature only works in versions of the game connected to our tree server.

• What our server keeps: your invite code (8 random characters, not made from anything about you) and your player ID as its owner, with the date it was made; and, if you used a friend's code, a record linking your player ID to that code, with a random record ID, the date you used it, the date you reached level 10 and the dates the rewards were given. Nothing else: no names, contacts, email addresses, device IDs or IP addresses.
• What the game never does: it never reads your contacts or address book, never reads your clipboard, and never posts or sends anything for you. You choose who gets your code, through your device's share menu.
• Limits: one code per player, one friend's code per player, never your own, and rewards for at most 10 friends a year. Your IP address is used briefly, in memory, to limit how often codes can be tried, and is never stored.
• On your device: your code, whether you used one, and which rewards were already given (so none is given twice).
• Deleting it: "Delete my data" deletes your code and the invite you used on our server and on the device. A friend who used your code keeps their own reward, but their record no longer points to you. Otherwise invite records are deleted 400 days after they were last used.

Advertising (Google AdMob)

The free game shows ads using Google AdMob, Google's mobile advertising service. There are two kinds: optional rewarded videos, which you choose to watch for a reward (at most 8 a day), and ads between levels. Ads between levels only start after level 6, at most after every second new level you beat, never within two minutes of the last one and never after a loss. Buying "No Ads" or the Supporter Pack turns off ads between levels; rewarded videos stay optional.

Consent

No ad is requested until the age question at first start has been answered. Only players who say they are 18 or over are asked about personalised ads or tracking; everyone else (including "prefer not to say") only ever gets non-personalised ads (see Children). In the UK, the EEA and Switzerland, younger players also need consent before any ad at all, as described in Ads for younger players below.

For adults, the game uses Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP) to ask for consent where the law requires it, such as in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Ads only load once the consent step allows it. If you say no to personalised ads, Google can still show non-personalised ads (based on things like the app and your general location rather than a profile of you). When the consent service says it is needed, a Privacy choices button appears in the game's Settings so that you can change your mind at any time.

What Google collects

When an ad is requested or shown, the Google Mobile Ads SDK in the game collects information directly for Google. According to Google's disclosures this includes:

• your device's advertising identifier (Android advertising ID, or Apple's IDFA where you allow tracking) and other app and device identifiers;
• your IP address, which can be used to estimate a general location;
• device and app information (such as model, operating system, language and app version);
• how you interact with ads, and diagnostic and performance data.

Google uses this to serve, measure and personalise ads (if you consented), prevent fraud and improve its services. For this Google acts under its own terms and privacy policy. We do not receive your advertising ID or these details; we only get total earnings reports from AdMob.

• Google Privacy Policy
• How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services
• How Google uses advertising data
• Google My Ad Center (manage ad personalisation)

You can also reset or delete your advertising ID, or limit ad tracking, in your device settings. On iPhone and iPad, Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking controls whether apps may ask to track you.

Ads are limited to content suitable for a PG rating, and to G-rated content for players under 13 or who didn't give an age.

Other ad networks through AdMob

AdMob can let other ad networks bid to show an ad in the game ("mediation"). In this version of the game, mediation is switched off: every ad comes from Google, and no other ad network receives anything. The game's code includes the software for one other network, Unity Ads (Unity Technologies), whose ad SDK is on Google Play's list of ad SDKs self-certified for apps that children use, but it is never started.

We may switch Unity Ads on in a later version. If we do, we will update this policy before that version is released, and the rest of this section will then apply. Unity Ads would only show an ad when it wins the bid; it would not add any ads, so you would see the same ads in the same places, whichever network supplies them. While Unity Ads is active, its SDK collects data directly from your device for Unity, under Unity's own privacy policy. According to Unity's disclosures this includes:

• device identifiers: the advertising identifier (Android advertising ID, or Apple's IDFA where you allow tracking) and identifiers Unity creates for the app on your device;
• your IP address, which can be used to estimate a general location (country and region);
• device and app information (such as model, operating system, language, screen, network type and app version);
• how you interact with ads (views, clicks, whether a video was finished), other app usage and in-app purchase history, and diagnostic and performance data.

Unity uses this to serve and measure ads, cap how often you see them, prevent fraud and improve its services, and, only for adults who agreed in the consent form or allowed tracking, to personalise ads. Unity decides how it uses this data under its own terms and privacy policy, as a controller in its own right. Children and teenagers never get personalised Unity ads: for anyone under 18, anyone who didn't give an age, and any adult who asked an iPhone app not to track them, the game tells Unity before it starts that there is no consent to personalised ads and that their data must not be sold or shared, and AdMob passes on Google's child or under-age setting with every ad request. For everyone else, Unity gets the answers you gave in the consent form, and you can change them at any time in the game's Privacy choices. We do not receive your data from Unity, only earnings totals.

• Unity Game Player and App User Privacy Policy
• Unity's privacy policies (all of Unity's privacy policies and its player privacy questions and answers)

iPhone and iPad tracking. Only a player who said they are 18 or over is shown Apple's App Tracking Transparency question, after the consent step. If they allow it, Google (and Unity Ads, if it is ever switched on) may use the device's advertising identifier (IDFA) for personalised ads. If they don't, or the player is under 18 or didn't give an age, the IDFA is not used and ads are not personalised.

Ads for younger players in the UK, EEA and Switzerland

The UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and the EU's ePrivacy rules say that storing or reading information on a device for advertising, even for ads that are not personalised, needs consent. So in the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland the game works like this:

• 18 or over: Google's consent form, as described above.
• Teenagers old enough to consent for themselves: 16 and 17 everywhere, and 13 to 15 where the law sets the age at 13 (such as the UK). They are shown Google's consent form. Their ads are still never personalised, are limited to PG-rated content, carry Google's under-age setting, and Apple's tracking question is never shown. Ads only load if the consent form allows it.
• Under 13, "prefer not to say", and teenagers below their country's age of digital consent (for example 13 to 15 in Germany, France or the Netherlands; 16 wherever the country isn't known): no ads at all, unless a parent agrees. The ad software is not started, nothing is stored on or read from the device for ads, and every "watch a video" offer is hidden. The game stays fully playable.

A parent's consent. For these younger players the shop shows an "Ask a grown-up" button (at most once a day, and not again after a parent has said no), and Settings has an Ads for your child row at all times. Both open the parent check, then a short card for the parent that explains what allowing ads means: ads chosen for children, never personalised, no tracking; Google AdMob (and Unity Ads, if it is switched on) storing and reading a little data on the device to show and count the ads; the child choosing each video in exchange for in-game rewards such as acorns, and short ads between some levels. "Allow" and "No thanks" are the same size and colour. If the parent allows it, ads start with all the child protections above (child-directed treatment and G-rated content for under-13s, under-age treatment and PG for teenagers, never personalised, no tracking question). The parent can withdraw at any time in Settings > Ads for your child; ads stop straight away. The answer, when it was given and which version of the card's wording it answered are kept on the device only (never sent to us or to the ad companies, and not in the cloud save); if the wording changes, the parent is asked again. "Delete my data" removes it.

How the game knows where you are. The game does not use your location. It looks at the country in your device's language and region settings and at its time zone. If either points to the UK, the EEA or Switzerland, or neither gives a country, the rules above apply. If a player in those countries has a device set to another country and time zone, an adult or teenager is still shown Google's consent form wherever Google's own systems find it is needed.

In-app purchases

You can buy acorns and a few one-time items (such as No Ads and the Supporter Pack) in the game, and adults can choose an optional monthly subscription, Tidy Pass. All payments are handled by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play) under their own terms and privacy policies. We never receive your card details, bank details, name, email address or billing address from them.

The store tells the game on your device that a purchase went through, and gives it a purchase token or transaction ID. The game uses that to deliver the item once and keeps a record on your device (see Stored on your device). In builds with purchase checks switched on, the game also sends that proof and your player ID to our server, which checks with Apple or Google that the purchase is genuine before the item is delivered (see Our tree server). If our server can't be reached, you still get your item and the check is tried again later.

Parent check. If the player is under 16 or didn't give an age, a grown-up must answer a short question in the game before any purchase with real money starts. Nothing about the answer is stored.

Tidy Pass subscription (adults only). Tidy Pass is an optional monthly subscription. It is only offered to players who answered the age question as 18 or over: players under 18, or who chose "Prefer not to say", never see it in the shop or anywhere else, and it never appears in pop-up offers. You buy, renew and cancel it with Apple or Google, who take the payment; we never receive your payment details, name or email address. To know whether the pass is active, the game reads the store's record on your device and, in builds with purchase checks switched on, sends the store's proof of the subscription (as for any purchase) to our server, which asks Apple or Google for its status. What our server receives from them about the subscription is: the product, when the current period started and when it ends (expiry date), its renewal status (active, in a billing grace period, cancelled but paid up until the end of the period, on hold, paused or expired, and whether it is set to renew), whether it was a test or family-shared purchase, and the store's transaction or order reference. Apple and Google also send our server notifications when a pass renews, fails to renew, is cancelled, expires or is refunded. Our server keeps only a one-way hash of the purchase (the original transaction ID or purchase token) and of your player ID, with the latest expiry date and status; the raw tokens, transaction records and order numbers are not kept, and the notification records contain no player ID. Deleting your data removes these records, as for other checked purchases. While a pass is on record, Settings always shows a Manage subscription link to the store's own page, so it can be cancelled whatever the age group.

Golden Seed. The Golden Seed is a game item for your Seed Garden that grows a golden tree, and every Golden Seed plants one real tree with our planting partner. This purchase always uses the purchase check, because our server orders the tree: once Apple or Google confirm the purchase, the server records a tree order for your player ID (with a one-way hash of the purchase, and on Google Play of its order number, so the same purchase never orders twice and a refund can be matched) and orders one tree from our planting partner. The tree order is kept like any other tree order (see How long we keep data). The partner still receives nothing about you.

• Apple Privacy Policy
• Google Privacy Policy (Google Play)

Notifications

If you say yes (the game asks after your first win, and there is a switch in Settings), the game can remind you when your lives are full, your daily gift is ready or an event is ending, with an occasional nudge from Nutmeg. These reminders are scheduled on your device by the game itself. There is no push notification service, no push token and nothing is sent to us. The game keeps quiet between 21:00 and 09:00 and limits how many reminders it sends. You can turn them off in the game's Settings or your device settings at any time.

Cloud save and achievements (Game Center and Google Play Games)

On iPhone the game uses Apple's Game Center, and on Android Google Play Games, if your device is signed in to it. The game signs in quietly when it starts and never asks you to make an account; if you are not signed in (or Game Center is switched off or restricted, for example by Screen Time), the game works fully without it. On iPhone, if the device has no Game Center account, iOS may show Apple's own Game Center sign-in sheet once, which you can close.

• Cloud save: a copy of your saved game (the game progress, purchases-owned list, trees and player ID listed under Information stored on your device, and seasonal event progress) is kept as a Game Center saved game (stored in your iCloud Drive) or a Google Play Games saved game (stored in your Google account). It is updated after you win a level or buy something, when you leave the game, and otherwise at most every few minutes. It does not include your age group, notification, sound or effects settings, or play stats. If a new phone finds a cloud save with more progress, the game asks whether to load it. Turn it off in Settings > Cloud save; "Load from cloud" is there too.
• Achievements: the game tells Game Center or Google Play Games when you reach milestones (for example finishing a world or unleashing a Wild Storm), so they show in your Game Center or Play Games profile. Achievements give no rewards in the game.
• Who holds it: Apple or Google, under your Apple Account or Google account and their own privacy policies (Apple, Google). This data goes straight from your device to Apple or Google; it never reaches us, and the game does not read your Game Center or Play Games name, picture, friends or player ID.
• Leaderboards (13 or over): if you are signed in, the game sends your totals (litter cleared, stars, trees earned, and this week's litter) to Game Center or Google Play Games leaderboards, which show them with your Game Center or Play Games nickname to other players under Apple's or Google's own settings. They are just for fun and decide no prizes. The game never asks you to sign in for them. Games can't delete leaderboard scores: to hide or remove yours, use your Game Center or Google Play Games privacy settings.
• Younger players: cloud save and achievements work for everyone, because Apple and Google accounts for children are set up and managed by a parent. Players under 13, or who didn't give an age, are never offered the Game Center or Play Games screens from the game (they show friends and other players). They never get leaderboards: nothing is sent and none is shown. On iPhone, a player Game Center marks as under age gets none either.
• Deleting it: "Delete my data" in Settings deletes the cloud save (if you are signed in at the time), resets the game's Game Center achievements, and switches cloud save off on that device. Google Play Games does not let games reset achievements: to remove them, delete Tidy Wilds's data in the Google Play Games app. You can also delete saved games in your iCloud or Google account settings.
• Who is responsible: we decide what the game puts in the cloud save and sends as achievements, so we are responsible for that choice and for sending it. Apple and Google store it in your account and run Game Center and Google Play Games as their own services, under their own terms and privacy policies, as controllers in their own right. We do not use them as our own storage: we cannot read your cloud save from anywhere except the game on your own device.

Tree planting partner

We fund real trees through our planting partner, Tree-Nation. When we order a tree, we send the partner the number of trees and, optionally, a species and a message chosen by us. We never send the partner your player ID or any information about you. The partner sends back details about the tree (such as its species, project, location and certificate), which we pass back to your game.

Store and ad revenue reports

To set each month's tree budget, our server can read the game's earnings reports from App Store Connect, Google Play and AdMob using read-only access. These are reports the stores give to every developer. The Google Play earnings report includes, for each sale, the buyer's country, state or region and postcode (it does not include names or email addresses). Our server reads these rows only to add up the money column into monthly totals. It does this in memory, keeps only the totals, and never stores, logs or uses the individual rows or the buyer's location. We cannot link a row to a player ID or to anyone in the game. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: setting the tree budget from the game's real income (see Lawful bases).

Links to other sites

Some screens link to outside pages, such as Wikipedia articles about tree species, this website's privacy, terms and support pages, or the planting partner's project and tree pages. They open in your browser only when you tap them, and for a player under 16 (or who didn't give an age) only after a grown-up answers the parent check. The same check comes before the device's share menu. Those sites have their own privacy policies.

What we don't collect

• No accounts of our own, and no sign-in to us. The only sign-in is your device's own Game Center or Google Play Games, which Apple or Google run (see Cloud save and achievements); nothing from it reaches us.
• No third-party analytics, tracking pixels, crash reporting or attribution tools in the game. The only play statistics are our own (see Anonymous play stats), and they never include your player ID, advertising ID, location or IP address.
• No precise location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone access.
• We do not sell your personal data.

This website

This website has no analytics, advertising, social media widgets, embedded videos or maps, and it loads nothing from other companies. It sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser (see our cookie policy). The website is hosted by Cloudflare (Cloudflare Pages), which processes your IP address and basic request details for us, as our processor, in order to deliver the pages and protect the site. If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write, and use it only to reply and help you. Emails to our tidywilds.com addresses are passed on by Cloudflare's email routing service and kept in our mailbox with Microsoft (Outlook.com).

Lawful bases for using your data

UK GDPR requires us to have a lawful basis for each use of personal data.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed them against your rights; you can object (see Your rights).

Who we share data with

• Google (AdMob and User Messaging Platform) collects data directly through the ad SDK, as described in Advertising. For personalised advertising Google acts as an independent controller.
• Unity Technologies (Unity Ads) receives nothing in this version of the game. If we switch it on in a later version, it will collect data directly through its ad SDK when it bids for or shows an ad through AdMob, as described in Other ad networks, as an independent controller.
• Apple and Google as app stores and payment processors, under their own policies, and (if your device is signed in) as Game Center and Google Play Games, which hold your cloud save and achievements in your own account (see Cloud save and achievements).
• Our hosting providers, as our processors: Fly.io, which hosts the tree server for us in the United Kingdom (London), and Cloudflare, which hosts this website, provides our domain's network service and passes on emails sent to our tidywilds.com addresses.
• Microsoft (Outlook.com), which provides the mailbox where we keep support emails.
• Our tree planting partner receives no personal data (see Tree planting partner).
• Professional advisers, or authorities where the law requires it.

International transfers

Our tree server is hosted by Fly.io in the United Kingdom (London). The UK recognises the countries of the European Economic Area as giving adequate protection, so no extra safeguards are needed for data held there, and the EU recognises the UK in the same way for data that comes to us from players in the EU.

Google, Apple, Cloudflare and Microsoft (and Unity, if Unity Ads is switched on) may process data in the United States and other countries. Where personal data goes from the UK to a country without UK adequacy regulations, these companies rely on recognised safeguards: the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for US companies certified under it (Google and Cloudflare say they are), or standard data protection clauses (the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses), which Apple and Unity say they use. You can ask us for more detail about these safeguards.

How long we keep data

Children

Tidy Wilds has cartoon art and a friendly mascot, so children may want to play it. The intended age rating is 4+ (App Store). The game has no accounts and never asks for names, contact details or photos, and nobody can chat in it. The only thing that can be shared is a postcard picture of a world the player has restored, saved or sent through the device's own share menu; it shows the world, the player's stats and our logo, never a name, player ID or anything personal, and nothing is sent to us. A picture of a real tree the player earned can be shared the same way (see Sharing your tree): it shows the tree and our logo, nothing personal, and there is no reward for sharing. For players under 16, or who didn't give an age, the share menu only opens after the parent check. Children are never offered invite codes or invite rewards (Invite a friend is for players aged 18 and over).

The game is for a mixed audience of children and adults. At first start it asks one neutral question, "Enter your year of birth", with an equally easy "Prefer not to say". It turns the answer into an age group straight away and keeps only that group on the device; the birth year is never stored or sent. A grown-up can change the age group in Settings after the parent check. "Delete my data" clears it, and the game asks again.

• Under 13, or "prefer not to say": ads are requested as child-directed (Google's child treatment, G-rated content only) and never personalised (and the same would apply to Unity Ads if it is switched on); no tracking request is shown; in the UK, EEA and Switzerland there are no ads at all unless a parent allows them on the "Ads for your child" card (see Ads for younger players); no prices appear in pop-ups (only the free ways); reminder notifications are never suggested and stay off unless switched on in Settings; anonymous play stats are off, the game never asks about them, and only a grown-up can switch them on.
• 13 to 17: ads are requested as under the age of consent and never personalised (by Google, or by Unity Ads if it is switched on); no tracking request is shown; in the UK, EEA and Switzerland they are shown Google's consent form if they are old enough to consent for themselves, and otherwise get no ads unless a parent allows them (see Ads for younger players); no prices appear in pop-ups; anonymous play stats are off unless switched on, and the game never asks about them. Under 16, the parent check comes before purchases, web links, sharing and switching the stats on.
• 18 or over: the normal consent step (and on iPhone and iPad, Apple's tracking question) described in Advertising. Only this group is offered the Tidy Pass subscription.

Game Center and Google Play Games: cloud save and achievements work for every age group, through the device's own (for children, parent-managed) Apple or Google account. Players under 13, or who didn't give an age, are never offered the Game Center or Play Games screens from the game and never get leaderboards. Players 13 to 17 may use leaderboards only through Game Center or Play Games, whose own settings for younger accounts decide who sees them. Only adults can win tournament prizes. The age group is never part of the cloud save, so a new device asks the age question again before anything is loaded.

For everyone, the game follows high-privacy defaults: no profiling, no third-party analytics, no location, no chat and no accounts of our own. There is a short, plain-language version of this policy for younger players at the top of this page (For younger players), and we have assessed the game against the ICO's Age Appropriate Design Code (the Children's Code) in a data protection impact assessment. If you are a parent or carer and think your child has used the game, you can contact us (see Your rights).

Tidy Wilds is not in Apple's Kids Category or Google Play's Designed for Families programme, and is listed for a general audience of children and adults. Personalised ads are only ever offered to players who said they are 18 or over. In the UK, the EEA and Switzerland, ads of any kind need consent: the age at which a child can consent to online services on their own (13 in the UK, between 13 and 16 in EU countries) decides whether a teenager answers Google's consent form or a parent answers on the "Ads for your child" card (see Ads for younger players).

Children under 13 in the United States (COPPA)

For a player who says they are under 13, or doesn't give an age, we collect no personal information other than "persistent identifiers": the random player ID, the IP address of the connection, and the device information Google's ad SDK uses to deliver an ad. We use them only to support the internal operations of the game, as allowed by the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (16 CFR 312.5(c)(7)):

• checking wins and funding the player's real trees (tree server);
• checking purchases, so one purchase can't be used twice, and preventing fraud;
• keeping our server secure and working (shortened logs and in-memory rate limiting);
• showing ads that are contextual only (chosen from the app and the ad request, not from the child's behaviour), limiting how often an ad is shown, and detecting ad fraud.

To make sure these identifiers are never used to contact a child, build a profile or show behavioural (targeted) ads: the game sends every ad request with Google's child-directed treatment, which turns off personalised ads and remarketing, stops the device's advertising ID being sent and blocks requests to other ad companies; the game never asks children to be tracked; there are no accounts, chat or contact features; and we never combine the player ID with anything that identifies a person. How long each item is kept is set out in How long we keep data; nothing linked to a player ID is kept for longer than it is needed for these purposes. If we learn that an email came from a child under 13, we use it only to reply once and then delete it. A parent can ask us to see or delete their child's data, or use "Delete my data" in the game (see Your rights).

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• have it corrected if it is wrong;
• have it deleted;
• restrict or object to how we use it (including where we rely on legitimate interests);
• data portability (receive it in a machine-readable format);
• withdraw consent at any time (for ads, use Privacy choices in the game's Settings).

Deleting your data

In the game: open Settings and choose Delete my data. The game explains what will be deleted and asks you to confirm twice. It then:

• asks our server to delete your verified levels, your last-seen date and any earned trees still waiting to be ordered, and to remove your player ID from trees already ordered (those records are kept for our accounts, see How long the server keeps data);
• clears your progress and unsent level proofs on the device and gives the game a new player ID, so nothing new is linked to the old one; it also forgets your age group and any parent's "Ads for your child" answer, which are asked again;
• deletes your invite code and any friend's invite you used (adults only; see Invite a friend) on our server and on the device;
• if your device is signed in to Game Center or Google Play Games, deletes the game's cloud save there, resets its Game Center achievements, and switches cloud save off on that device (Play Games achievements can only be removed in the Google Play Games app; see Cloud save and achievements);
• keeps the items you bought, and the real trees already ordered in your forest on the device. Real trees already ordered are still planted by the partner’s project.

If you are offline, the game deletes the data on the device straight away and sends the request to our server the next time it can reach it. In test builds that don't use our server, nothing was ever sent, so only the data on the device is deleted.

By email: if you can no longer open the game, or you would rather ask us, email us with your full player ID (see below) and we will delete the same data on the server.

How to make a request

Email support@tidywilds.com with the subject "Privacy request" (start a privacy request email). Tell us what you want and include your full player ID: in the game, open Settings, find Your player ID under Your data and tap the copy button. Because there are no accounts, the player ID is the only way we can find your data on our server. If you have already used "Delete my data", the old player ID is gone from your device and our server no longer holds data linked to it. We will reply within one month (this can be extended by two more months for complex requests, and we will tell you if so). There is no charge.

Much of your data is on your own device, where you control it: uninstall the game to remove it. For data Google or Apple hold (for example about ads or purchases), please use their privacy tools or contact them directly.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have used your personal data, please tell us first so we can try to put things right: email support@tidywilds.com with the subject "Data protection complaint" (start a complaint email), or write to us at the postal address under Who we are. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, keep you updated and tell you the outcome. You also have the right to complain to the UK data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, telephone 0303 123 1113. If you live in the EU or EEA you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Players outside the UK

EU and EEA: Tidy Wilds is not offered in the countries of the European Union or the European Economic Area at the moment. Before we make it available there, we will update this policy, including appointing a representative in the EU as Article 27 of the EU GDPR requires.

United States: we do not sell personal information, and we never use or allow targeted advertising for players under 18 or who didn't give an age. For adults, Google's use of data for personalised ads may count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising, or as targeted advertising, under some US state privacy laws; you can opt out at any time through Privacy choices in the game's Settings (where Google's form for your state offers it) and your device settings, as described in Advertising. Wherever you live, you can ask us to tell you what data we hold about you, correct it, delete it or stop using it for ads, whether or not a state law requires us to, by emailing us as described in Your rights. For children under 13, see COPPA.

Security

Connections between the game and our server use HTTPS. The server's secret keys are kept out of the app and out of our code. Only we can use the server's admin functions. No system is perfectly secure, but we collect as little as we can so there is little to lose.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when the game or the law changes, and change the effective date at the top. If a change matters, we will also tell you in the game or on this website before it takes effect.

Contact

Steven Shackleton, trading as Tidy Wilds
Email: support@tidywilds.com
Post: Tidy Wilds, Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA